New program for airline pilots grows in Punta Gorda

Experience the sights and sounds of the Frasca-brand flight simulator at the Southwest Florida campus of Western Michigan's College of Aviation. The 220-degree view gives users the feeling they're in motion. The data bank offers visual options for just about any airport.
LAURA RUANE/THE NEWS-PRESS

In the foreground: the tail of Cirrus SR-20 training airplane Western Michigan University will use in its aviation program in Punta Gorda, Florida. In the background: the Punta Gorda Airport tower and and Allegiant Air jetliners.(Photo11: LAURA RUANE/The News-Press)

Western Michigan University’s four-year aviation degree program takes off this month in Southwest Florida, with an array of high-tech training tools and leaders with serious airline creds.

Only seven freshmen comprise the inaugural class: A key state education approval came too late for the College of Aviation to advertise widely for this term.

Still, program organizers are proceeding full-throttle. They believe their program will help ease a pilot shortage that many say looms for both regional and national airlines, as members of the Baby Boom generation retire.

Academic classes are being held at the south Punta Gorda campus WMU shares with Florida SouthWestern State College.

Those students majoring in aviation sciences – the degree for a commercial pilot’s career path – will start learning to fly on a $500,000 Frasca simulator, whose 220-degree view makes users feel like they're in motion.

"It looks like a Google Maps representation of wherever we want to fly," said Jim Williams, head of flight operations and safety for WMU’s Punta Gorda program.

At Punta Gorda Airport about a mile from the campus, they’ll ultimately transition to flying one of three Cirrus SR-20 planes outfitted with dual controls, a glass cockpit and a keyboard-entry flight management system.

The biggest and oldest U.S. airlines use that kind of flight management system.

The nose of the Frasca flight simulator on the Charlotte County campus Western Michigan University shares with Florida SouthWestern State College.(Photo11: LAURA RUANE/The News-Press)

“We teach that right away; we also teach them the traditional stick-and-rudder skills,” Williams said.

The result? “They’re more-complete pilots.”

Williams is a longstanding instructor for aircraft manufacturer Boeing and a former United Airlines and U.S. Air Force pilot. He reports to Dave Powell, Michigan-based dean of the College of Aviation, who also flew for United and the Air Force.

WMU's College of Aviation has nearly 900 undergraduates at its Battle Creek campus.

The bachelor's degree program in Punta Gorda offers a choice of two majors: aviation sciences, for aspiring pilots, and aviation management, for students interested in the business side.

Giving willing and able students a leg-up in aviation is crucial to the nation’s transportation future, according to Williams.

Sixty-five is the mandatory retirement age for commercial pilots.

More than 42 percent of pilots at the biggest U.S. carriers will retire over the next 10 years, according to a recent report by the financial services firm Cowen & Company.

Boeing estimates airlines in North America will need 117,000 new pilots over the next 20 years.